Web hosting is when someone offers up their computer or server to host someone else's website. It provides access to other users who connect through the internet host’s server and view your content. If you’re curious about web hosting, here are 10 vocab terms you have to know.
1. Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data that transfers through your account. You can think of it as the amount of traffic a website can take. Bandwidth is used when someone visits your site, and also when people upload or download files from your site.
2. Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is a type of account where only one web host has control over an entire server—all of its resources are used on that one account. Dedicated hosting isn't the most common type of web hosting people purchase because it’s a little more expensive.
3. DNS
DNS is an acronym for “Domain Name System,” which is a system for naming computers and network services that are organized into a hierarchy of domains. DNS naming is used in TCP/IP networks to locate computers and services.
4. Firewall
A firewall is a barrier designed by a computer’s operating system to prevent unauthorized communications between computer networks or hosts. Firewalls help screen out viruses, hackers, and worms as they try to reach computers through the internet.
5. FTP
FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol,” which is a standard protocol used for transferring files to or from the web server to your local machine.
6. Load Balancing
Load balancing is a way to distribute workloads across multiple computer resources. It aims to optimize resource use, maximize throughput, minimize response time, and avoid overload of a single resource.
7. Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is a form of dedicated hosting where a service provider hosts and provides other services like hardware and software setup and configuration. The web host also provides maintenance, hardware replacement, technical support, patching, updating, and monitoring.
8. Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is when a provider serves pages for multiple websites. While each has its own domain name, the sites are served by the same web server. Almost all web hosting services offer shared hosting, and while it’s less expensive it’s not sufficient for websites that have high traffic.
9. SSL
SSL stands for “Secure Socket Layer,” and it’s a means of encryption that’s commonly used for e-commerce websites where credit cards are accepted. SSL is active when you see a site beginning with “https://” in the address bar.
10. Subdomain
A subdomain is an additional domain name that enables you to organize your site and host additional websites inside of your main site. The subdomain is usually on the same server which eliminates the need to pay for extra domain names.
